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September 13, 2007

Verizon Asks for Court to Overturn FCC's 700 MHz Rules

Verizon plays spoilsport: The FCC staff extensively refuted Verizon's various contentions regarding its intention to set any device/any service rules for a swath of national 700 MHz spectrum. Many of Verizon's arguments appeared prima facie specious to me, not a regulatory or constitutional expert; Verizon didn't like it, and sued today. The company argues that requiring a firm to allow any device and access any service oversteps the FCC's authority. It seems unlikely to be upheld, given the tendency for courts to allow the FCC to act fairly broadly within their statutory powers, even when that includes limiting competition by allowing massive consolidation of media ownership.

The national 700 MHz licenses in the so-called C Block are the last great hope for anything marginally like real, unfettered broadband wireless access that's not already tied up by large telecoms, as with 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz licenses, among other bands. I wrote extensively about the FCC Second Order and Report that set the terms for the upcoming auctions back on Aug. 16.

1 Comment

You are way off track thinking that anyone oher than the large telcos will be able to use 700Mhz. The licenses are VERY expensive and most are already spoken for by large providers. As a small WISP, we are relegated to using the UNlincensed freqs. I would suggest that the FCC consider APPLIACTIONS for licenses much like they do now for 155Mhz and 450Mhz radio bands. The auctioning concept and large territories allow large carriers to prevail. I would like to get a license for 700Mhz just for the county we're in, but we can not. We're abused for sure.

[Editor's Note: I'm not sure what you mean by the licenses being mostly spoken for - the auction by January 2008 will open up several hundred regional licenses designed for the purposes you describe. Not enough, sure, but they might fit the bill -gf]